Book Review: The Red Planet Series, #1-4, by William Graham.

Book Review: The Red Planet Series, #1-4, by William Graham.

From Vermont to Mars, (The Red Planet, #1)

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

From Vermont to Mars is the first novella in the Red Planet Trilogy. While listening, it becomes obvious rather quickly that this novella is based on world building. It follows two members of a family, a man, Virgin Birch, in Vermont and his granddaughter, Emily Birch, on Mars, after water crisis’ lead to the growing colonisation of the moon and Mars. It was really interesting to see the issues presented to both characters from the big company that controls construction on both Earth and Mars. I also really enjoyed how Part II of this novella was set like a diary as I felt like it really fit with the style of novella.

Rating = 5* /5*

The Red Planet Murders (The Red Planet, #2)

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. The second novella in the Red Planet Trilogy, The Red Planet Murders didn’t hold my attention as much as From Vermont to Mars did. With the major plot surrounding the conflict between democracy and company controlled autocracy, the novella itself felt very politically American. Maybe I just felt a bit uncomfortable with that because I’m not American? It’s incredibly brief and parts do become quite boring. Rating = 3* / 5*

The Martian Republic (The Red Planet, #3)

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. While better than The Red Planet Murders, this novella is disappointing. It follows the election of the first Martian President and it felt very much like extreme left vs extreme right. It wasn’t a good election and for the most parts neither seemed to help the poor of Mars, which was the aim of the extreme left candidate. A lot of this focused on the use of a spin doctor, rather than the actual politics. I think the key phrase in this novella was “if we repeat a phrase enough times, people will start to believe it.” It had weak execution and weak follow through. I did really like the narrator. He’s narrated this trilogy extremely well. Rating = 2* / 5* The Red Planet President (The Red Planet, #4)                                                                                    I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. I liked the idea of the fight against corruption, spearheaded by the first Martian President, Jane Sterling. I don’t quite think that her policies were that great, but the plot was pretty good. It probably would have been better if it had been longer, as the storyline felt quite condensed. Rating = 4* / 5*

Book Review: The Shock of the Fall, bu Nathan Filer.

Book Review: The Shock of the Fall, bu Nathan Filer.

I DNFed this book at exactly 100 pages, or 31%. 

I have no idea what was happening in this book or where it was heading, or even really, where it had come from. It felt like everything was about Simon, but Simon died three pages into the book and I still couldn’t figure out what he’d actually died from. All I know he suffered from was weak muscles and Downs Syndrome. Aside from poor writing and inconsistent plot, the characters weren’t brilliant either. Matthew was boring, and his parents were flat. 

The first 31% of this book doesn’t convince me that Matthew is actually schizophrenic because he feels too together in the novel. His thoughts and feelings are pretty present and his schizophrenia isn’t shown through his behaviour and language, but he tells you. It’s just a massive disappointment.

Rating = 1* / 5*.

Book Review: Matched, Matched #1, by Ally Condie.

Book Review: Matched, by Ally Condie. (Matched, #1)

I was supposed to be buddy reading this book with Amy but I kinda rushed ahead. I'm not so happy that I did.

I don't quite understand why I didn't really like this book. I loved the premise, but the execution let it down. I spent the entire book waiting for something to happen, and then the big thing that happened was Cassia kissing a boy? Like what? It felt incredibly slow and it was really difficult to see where the plot was going.

The only good part of this novel really, aside from a chapter at the beginning (maybe that's just because I liked the Matching ceremony and the link with Cassia's dress and the front cover of the book, which I would say is really good. I really like the front cover) is the last few chapters. Something finally happens, and the pace of the book changes. 

With a lackluster plot, you'd have thought that the character development would be good. But no. It's not. Cassia comes across as a love torn teenager who can't choose between Xander, her best friend who she would have a good life with, and Ky, the local mysterious bad boy who she only likes because of a mistake. I love her name, but her character is incredibly boring. Xander is basically non-existent until Cassia sees him playing games and he's signing them up to couple-y things without her permission. He totally didn't deserve Cassia's treatment of him in the book. Ky is much more interesting than either Xander and Cassia, especially as the book teases his backstory and his ineligibility to be Matched, but he's still not amazing. However, I did like Cassia's Grandfather. He's only in about a quarter of the book, but he has more sense than all the other characters combined. 

I think my major gripe with this book is that it really just focused on the wrong things. Why did Society develop like this? How long has it been like this? Why can't people write anymore? How exactly do they match the teenagers? (just saying genes isn't helpful, Cassia's Official. Does she even have a name?) How did they choose the 100 Poems that survived? I get that poetry plays a large part in this books, but what else did they save besides poetry? Why were the artifacts removed? Why were the trees cut down? (just saying that its a warning isn't helpful either, Cassia) But instead of all of these questions being answered, we got learning to write in sand, jealous girlfriends and a lot of pages about a compass. I don't think I've read so much about a compass since The Golden Compass .

While I will read the read of the series, I think for dystopian future novels, I'll stick with Three Days Breathing .

Rating = 2* / 5*.

Book Review; Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell.

Book Review; Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell.

I loved this book!!! I found it very difficult to put this book down (though I did a couple times) and I felt drawn into the story and Cath’s world. Being that it centres around fanfiction, I wasn’t a massive fan of the excerpts of the fanfiction that Cath wrote being at the end of the chapters. It made sense for the story, but I personally struggled with it because it distracted me from the actual plot and Cath. I loved reading about the relationship between Cath and Wren (and I love their names). Seeing them fall apart and the stress that Cath was under in the first semester felt very real and relatable. It was really interesting to read the differences in how they treated their mother, though the whole debacle did make me really dislike Wren. In fact, the entire book minus the last four chapters made me strongly dislike Wren. I also liked Cath and Wren’s father and it felt nice to see a depiction of bipolar, and how it’s affected Cath. It was difficult to see how it affected Wren, but then, Wren was difficult. I really liked Reagan. She was possibly the most mature character in the book and I thought she was brilliant. I loved the way she handled living with Cath and drawing her out of their room. I also found her dislike of twins pretty entertaining. For the first quarter of the book I was trying to figure out if Cath would date Nick or Levi. I never really liked Nick and I liked the culmination of their storyline, with Cath receiving the support of Professor Piper (I imagine that Cath really frustrated her for the majority of the novel and fair dos to the woman for sticking out and supporting Cath) as well as her friends. However, I did really like Levi. I liked him from the moment he offered to walk Cath to her lectures in the dark, because I thought that was really sweet and gentlemanly. I just really loved this book and I thank the person who recommended it to me, because it was brilliant. Rating = 5* / 5*.

Book Review; The Enigma Series, #1 and #2, by Charles V. Breakfield and Roxanne E. Burkey.

Book Review

The Enigma Series, #1, The Enigma Factor, by Charles V. Breakfield and Roxanne E. Burkey.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

The characters were really good. I enjoyed learning about these people, especially Jacob and Otto, though I suspected Petra of being a turncoat the entire novel. I thought they were written really well and I really liked the friendship between Jacob and Buzz.

However, there was a lot of conversation, so it wasn’t exactly fast paced, and the plot itself was quite confusing. It was a bit weird because the plot tried to be fast but the topic itself slowed it down and with all of the exposition talking, it felt really strange. The hacking aspects of the book sounded interesting but they felt rather overdone. I say sounded, because it was quite difficult to follow because it didn’t make much sense to me. However, I am a complete computer novice.

I didn’t like the sex scenes. They weren’t particularly good, so either they needed more attention, or they needed removing.

The group itself confused me. Are they a stealth group? Because it seems like everybody knows they exist and can request their services. 

So I was confused by most of this novel, but I really liked the characters, character development and the writing style.

Rating = 3* / 5*.



The Enigma Series, #2, The Enigma Rising, by Charles V. Breakfield and Roxanne E. Burkey.

                                                          

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

I really enjoyed this book, and I much prefer this book to #1 in the series. It looked deeper into Jacob, Petra and Otto, as well as looking into the other members of the R-Group. As in book 1, my favourite part of the novel is the character development and the character interactions, which was excellent.

I did struggle with the plot a bit, because there was a lot of moving parts that I struggled to link together. It reminded me a bit of the Jack Reacher novels with all the moving parts of the plot. The tech aspects did again feel overdone, but not as bad as the previous novel.

Rating = 4* / 5*.